CP/M/CPM_CDROM.iso/simtel/cpmug/cpmug092.ark/SECRTARY.DOC

Text File | 1986-10-19 | 3.6 KB | 56 lines

    SECRTARY WORD PROCESSOR PRELIMINARY DOCUMENTATION

    Once upon a time many years ago when North Star first started
putting out systems, there was a need for a word processor that was easy
to use, easy to learn, and cheap.  There were very few word processors
available and none available for North Star DOS.  Video terminals and
full screen editors were not common, most systems used ASR33 teletypes
for I/O and most people had much less than 64K of memory.
    This led to the development of MARYELLN, a word processor for the
North Star DOS.  It used less than 8K of memory so the rest of RAM could
hold the text, it was line oriented instead of screen oriented so it
could be used with a TTY, and most of the commands were similar to the
ones used in North Star BASIC.  Anyone knowing BASIC could immediately
use MARYELLN.  The source code was assembled using an early assembler
that required that all of the code be resident in memory at one time.
Therefore to save memory, comments were kept to a minimum.   Later it
took 2, 3 and eventually 5 files to assemble separately and link
together to form the final program.  MARYELLN did all the usual
editor/word processor functions: edit, load, save, justify, line fill,
center, number pages, move, copy, find, list, print, and change.
    Later, MARYELLN, was greatly enhanced and was renamed SECRTARY (8
characters) because of so many questions about why it was called
MARYELLN.  The enhanced features included a more sophisticated
installation procedure, underlining, imbedded commands, line wrap around
on input, automatic insertion of names and addresses from a BASIC file,
additional commands like STATUS, and the ability to load North Star
BASIC programs in token format, convert them to ASCII, and edit them as
a normal SECRTARY file.  I should point out that a "normal SECRTARY
file" used the format of the old assembler or programs such as XEK, SCS
etc where the line consisted of a character count, 2 byte binary line
number the text, and a carriage return (no line feed).
    SECRTARY still consisted of five source files which had to be
assembled separately and there were very few comments.  SECRTARY is
still popular today on North Star systems.  The source code was merged
together and maintained under CP/M however (some 5000 lines of it).
Later, a CP/M version was implemented.  By this time, however, full
screen editors were popular and the limitation of line numbers and
memory resident files was unpopular for large text files even with the
"CHAIN" command.
    SECRTARY is now available to CPM users for people who need a word
processor for a few letters but do not want the expense or
complications of the more extensive full screen editors.
    To get SECRTARY to work, first assemble it using ASM or MAC.  It
uses 8080 code not Z80 code.  The full user manual is contained in files
USERMAN0.TXT, USERMAN1.TXT, USERMAN2.TXT etc.  After loading the
program, execute it and enter the command "LOAD USERMAN1.TXT".  The
program will load the file and tell you the size.  Then type "LIST" (no
quotes) and the file will be listed on the screen.  To get a hard copy
of it, first enter the command "DEVICE L" to have the listing or
printing go to the list device.  (LIST shows line numbers and control
commands, PRINT justifies, and applies the commands to the final text).
After setting the device to the list device, simply enter the command
PRINT.  Each file will "CHAIN" in the next file and you will have the
full user manual which will teach you to use the other features.
"DEVICE C" returns the print or listing to the console device.